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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Burdastyle 03/2012

Having checked my Burda Style review posts, I soon realised that this is my most viewed category. I don't know if this is just because an general interest in a review of Burda patterns or if my readers are just interested in my criticism of Burda, but I feel flattered...

The march issue traditionally has some wedding patterns and this issue also doesn't let us down. While the patterns for bridal gowns are mostly conservative and not very modern - sorry Burda!-, at least one or two of the patterns can usually be used for formal events.
Both dresses mentioned in my top 3 are -in variation- from said wedding patterns. Third best goes to a pattern for which Burda did not include any variation (I'm surprised, ususally they sell of the same pattern at least twice), it is a bridal gown with a corsetty midrif. Very clean, very streamlined and if you inlcude proper boning, this dress might hide a little belly which you don't want to show. In black satin I can easily imagine this as a dress for goths!
My second choice would be the little skirt with an interesting waistline. Creating a v-detail here, the shape is very flattering for rounder bellies and the ruflling makes the part even more visually attractive. It seems to be a wrap skirt for which I hope Burda included enough overlap. Otherwise the seamstress will have to increase the width of the front parts.
My favourite pattern from this issue is another dress from the bridal collection, this time in the non-white variation. Nice empire waitsline, shoulder straps wide enought to hide bra straps and I like the use of stripes for this pattern. Nice one!

This month, the bad cases are plenty. I had a hard time choosing between several designs (What about the garden series, are they kidding me?), but here are my favourite nutjobs:
The pullover deserves at least honourbale mentions. The pattern might be nice in another colour, but this pullover looks like the stuff that would have even shamed me a s akid with no fashion sense. It looks childish, homemade in a bad way and rather cheap. Not a good choice if you want to sell a pattern to a modern audience!
I'm not really a fan of jeans shirts, jeans only worke well as trousers in my opinion. But the pattern on the left takes this cowboy shirts on a new, bad level! It looks frumpy, the sleeves are out of proportion and the chest pockets make everyones boobs look saggy. You are better of if you steal your cowboys men's shirt!
And while we're at it: No fake leather fringes if not on a real cowboy, american native or costume! If you wnat to dress up as Pocahontas for carnival, grap your issue: This is the right dress!